Efficient Hydrogen Generation to Boost Fuel Cell Output

Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) are being developed with an eye toward use in mobile phones, but they are poorly suited to applications demanding high output. The potential for fuel cells using hydrogen fuel in these applications, however, has suddenly jumped. Casio Computer Co, Ltd of Japan has developed a reformer to extract hydrogen from […]

Let’s nuke the oil out of the ground

The need for a relatively rapidly available resource to allow us to continue being able to supply the worlds needs for oil, even as it increases into the future, will require some fairly rapid and agile production of resources, and as I noted in the first post of this series, with some 2 trillion extractable […]

Green investors get red alert from analysts

Investors hoping to strike it rich while saving the planet risk losing everything in the rush to invest in “green” companies, analysts say. High oil prices, climate change and insecure supplies have sparked an explosion of companies seeking money to develop ways to ease the looming energy crisis. However, some fear backers of growth firms […]

Oil-Rich Alberta Embraces Solar Power

Solar electric panels will be installed on 20 municipal buildings across the oil-producing province of Alberta, city and federal government officials announced on Thursday. Climate Change Central’s Alberta Solar Municipal Showcase has been granted up to C$350,000 (US$315,445) in funding from Canada’s Green Municipal Fund to support the two year project, officials announced from the […]

House measure would sweeten oil shale deal

Energy companies could potentially reap millions of dollars in royalty breaks under a House bill approved Thursday that calls for the United States to model its western oil shale program after Canada’s booming tar sands industry. Companies in Canada are making fortunes turning sticky, tar-covered sand into oil. The United States hopes to do the […]

Jellyfish-Like Creatures May Play Major Role in Fate of Carbon Dioxide in the Oc

Transparent jellyfish-like creatures known as a salps, considered by many a low member in the ocean food web, may be more important to the fate of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the ocean than previously thought. In the May issue of Deep Sea Research, scientists report that salps, about the size of a human […]

US Air Force to test alternative jet fuel blend

Later this year, a giant U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber will take off with a new kind of jet fuel that can be derived from coal or natural gas, setting the stage for the U.S. military to eventually burn a new formula that is not derived from crude oil. In September, a B-52 Stratofortress will […]

Great Divide oilsands project approved

Work will start soon on the Great Divide Oil Sands Project, a pioneering compact oilsands plan with components in northern Alberta and Montana. ”We’re ready to roll,” Connacher Oil and Gas Ltd. president Dick Gusella said in an interview Thursday after obtaining regulatory approval from the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board for the Fort McMurray […]

Nanotechnology Holds Promise for Energy Breakthroughs

Nanotechnology holds promise for necessary breakthroughs in a number of critical energy sectors, including solar cells, thermoelectric conversion and transport, hydrogen storage, and electrochemical conversion and storage (i.e., batteries, capacitors and fuel cells), according to scientists participating in the first Energy Nanotechnology International Conference (ENIC2006) held June 26-28 at MIT. greencarcongress

German Gasoline and Diesel Consumption to Drop Combined 25% by 2025

In its just-released annual forecast to the German petroleum industry, the MWV (the Association of the German Petroleum Industry: Mineral greencarcongress

Peak Oil Passnotes: $80 Here We Come

Resource Investor – To follow on from what we were talking about last week, it would be a brave man to bet against $80 later this year. In fact $80 will be an easy target if we get anything out of the ordinary happening, and most times ordinary is bad enough. In 2005 we would […]

More Oil Flowing from Alberta to U.S.

Toronto Star – Recent expansion of the pipeline network linking Alberta’s rich oil sands to the U.S. is fuelling a big increase in cross-border exports of Canadian oil Toronto Star

Analysis: How Much Oil Do Saudis Have?

(UPI) — There are many reasons to doubt that Saudi Arabia, the world`s biggest oil producer, can feed the globe`s ever-growing hunger for oil for as long as it claims, experts say. ‘We don`t know what the Saudi reserves are,’ said Jack Zagar, a former oil engineer with 30 years of experience in the business. […]

The Oil Drum: Inflationary Collapses, or The NPV of Grandchildren

Suppose you own a forest. You’d like to make some money from the trees and you are considering two options. One is to clearcut the whole thing and sell the timber, which will net you $X. This particular forest happens to be on a steep erodable slope such that the soil will probably wash off […]

Fiscal crisis for Mexico as oil starts to dry up

Cardenas, Mexico — Gonzalo Rodriguez has an unenviable task as the boss of a major oil field — ripping out a large part of the pumping and compressing machinery that collects the output from scores of wells. “Unfortunately, we don’t need this capacity anymore,” he said. “This isn’t like the old days, and they aren’t […]

Vermont farm getting power from cows

BRIDPORT, Vt. (AP) – The cows at the Audet family’s Blue Spruce Farm make nearly 9,000 gallons of milk a day — and about 35,000 gallons of manure. It’s long been the milk that pays, but now the Audets have figured out how to make the manure pay as well. They’re using it — actually, […]

Gas prices might fuel hunger

The high cost of filling delivery trucks forces a major food bank to consider reducing its reach Rapidly rising gas prices are forcing the Food Bank of New York City, which distributes 67 million pounds of food to different agencies annually, to consider reducing deliveries to local pantries, soup kitchens and shelters by at least […]

High fuel prices make fishing unviable option in Vietnam

High fuel prices have eroded Vietnamese fishermen Tran Van Tan, another owner, said a trip that fetched a profit of over VND100 million ($6,250) last year caused a loss now. As a result, many owners are wary of going out to sea. In Ba Ria-Vung Tau province

Oil exports boom as attacks on pipelines cease

Coalition forces, oil workers welcome unexpected lull in sabotage in north BEIJI, Iraq – For more than two years the attacks came like clockwork. As soon as the military secured and workers repaired the pipelines from Iraq Perhaps insurgents feared reprisals in Salahuddin province, where pipelines from Kirkuk flow to the country

Oil spill in La. leaves ships stranded

LAKE CHARLES, La. – Ships have been stranded, seafood sources threatened and the nation’s oil reserve tapped as the result of 47,000 barrels of oil spilling into a southwestern Louisiana shipping channel, forcing its closure. “For this area, it’s a major spill. They haven’t had anything like this in 20 years,” Chief Warrant Officer Adam […]

Petro-hysteria grips a superpower

High oil prices, political instability in oil-producing states, the rise of energy-hungry China, jihadist terrorism and the return of “resource nationalism” are factors constantly cited in Washington these days as evidence that national security is being undermined by unrestrained consumption of oil. Petroleum, once seen as the energy source that fueled the “American century”, has […]

Japan to Start Receiving Sakhalin Oil, Cut Middle East Reliance

Japan will start receiving its first shipments from the $13 billion Sakhalin-1 oil and natural gas project this year, helping the world’s second-largest economy ease dependence on imports from the Middle East.Japan, which is vulnerable to supply cuts because it relies on imports for almost all of its oil, is seeking ways to secure natural […]

Oil price to increase on demand in 2007

Merrill Lynch raised its 2007 oil price forecast 38 percent Wednesday because of higher-than- expected demand and limits in refineries’ ability to produce gasoline. Merrill analysts, led by Francisco Blanch, raised their 2007 estimate for West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark for crude oil, to $65 a barrel. Prices will average $67.50 this year, 13 […]

Study shows global warming may not lead to greater crop yields

Scientists had thought that there was one potential upside to global warming: more food to feed the world. Years of laboratory tests led them to believe that more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could fertilize food crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat and rice, offsetting the plant-damaging effects of higher global temperatures and less rainfall. […]

Edinburgh’s sewage to help biofuels grow

Sewage sludge from Edinburgh’s waste water will fertilise fields of biofuel crops, as the first sewage-to-biofuel scheme of its kind in the UK kind gets under way. The pilot project will see rapeseed and wheat or barley grown on 1,000 hectares of Scotland’s east coast processed into 5m litres of biofuels each year – enough […]

Big Three to step-up biofuel effort

The Big Three US automotive companies – General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler – have announced plans to double annual production of vehicles capable of running on renewable fuels, to two million cars and trucks, by 2010. The pledge towards more flex fuel vehicles that can use E85 ethanol or biodiesel came in a letter addressed […]

Europeans fund energy projects

The European Commission has set aside $490million for energy projects for African, Caribbean and Pacific nations. This represents the single most important allocation granted by the EU for energy projects with the overall objective of reducing poverty and increasing sustainable development. Countries under the ACP block are encouraged to tender for projects and if the […]

China Increases Power Prices to Counter Coal Costs

China, the world’s second-biggest energy user, raised electricity prices for the first time in more than a year to help power companies pass on the higher cost of coal.China sets power prices to curb their impact on inflation and shield consumers from rising energy costs. The government is gradually helping generators cover the cost of […]

US worried about falling output

The US government is concerned about falling crude oil supplies from Opec member Venezuela, a senior US government official said. Declining oil output from Venezuela since 2001 “is a concern to world oil markets and has not been helpful to world oil consumers, particularly developing countries in our own hemisphere,” the official told Reuters on […]

One country, two energy plans

Germany plans to phase out nuclear energy by 2021, but the country`s energy companies are racing to build new atomic power plants all over Europe, much to the dismay of the governing Social Democrats. The other half of the German government, Chancellor Angela Merkel`s center-right Christian Democrat Union, or CDU, is likely to silently cheer […]

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LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Is It Time To Abandon the Idea of Phasing Out Oil and Gas?
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